“Because we’re white, we have had privilege, even the poor of us have had privilege, and we need to recognize that and we have to understand what it is that keeps racism in place-the policies, redlining, banking policies, mortgage policies-all of the things that are making it really, really difficult for Black people to lift themselves up,” she said. “I realize that I didn’t understand enough about the history of racism, about slavery and reconstruction, and Jim Crow,” she admitted.įonda said that American policies have to change immediately.

On Sunday, Fonda spoke with CNN’s Don Lemon about white privilege, revealing that she’s spent the last three years studying racism in the U.S. But her passions don’t stop with acting: Fonda has dedicated most of her life to social, political, and environmental activism, earning her both praise and criticism.Īt 82, she’s now speaking out louder than ever amid the tragic killing of George Floyd. ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcbįonda also revealed something not many people know about: all of the money from her iconic workout videos apparently went to the Campaign for Economic Democracy, a progressive organization that sought to ''to respond to Reaganomics and the need to reform and revitalize the Democratic Party.Jane Fonda is famous for her roles in iconic films and shows-from 9 to 5 to Klute to Grace and Frankie-throughout her decades-long career. The ACLU took my case and sued and we were right and we won.'įonda's activist days are far from over as well, as she continues to fight for rights for women and environmentalism, and against the Dakota Pipeline and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. You should focus on somebody who's really a danger.' So I felt pretty good. So he assigned to the Justice Department and the investigators ended up coming back to him and saying 'She didn't commit treason. 'He wanted to figure out how he could get me for treason. He had better things he should have been focusing on.' But when she was arrested, she was told that the orders came from the White House, so she knew Nixon was behind the whole charade.Ĭolbert asked her how it felt to be personally targeted by the president, and she responded that, 'it didn't feel good. Ultimately, the so-called drugs were sent to a lab and determined to be legal, and she was let go. Her 1970 mugshot photo, in which she is portrayed holding up a fist, now serves as the lead image for the biographical film. Prior to the question, Fonda also revealed how much her anti-war activism drew the ire of then-president Richard Nixon, who kicks off the documentary with the words, 'What's the matter with Jane Fonda?'Īccording to Fonda, Nixon was so annoyed that he set her up and had her busted for drug trafficking because she was carrying vitamins from Canada. And I'm proud of that because I think it saved a lot of lives.' In the documentary, my second husband, Tom Hayden, who I really miss, he says, the bombing of the dikes in North Vietnam stopped because Jane Fonda went there and exposed it. I knew from soldiers what was going on, so I don't regret going to North Vietnam. But that image is there and I will go to my grave regretting that. I had been working with soldiers prior to that and for years after that. 'No, I have-from the moment that I did the bad thing I did, which was I sat on an anti-aircraft gun in north Vietnam. I wasn't even thinking what I was doing and photographs were taken and that image went out and the image makes it look like I was against our soldiers, which was never the case. When Colbert asked Fonda if her attitude to what she did has changed given what we've learned about the war, she responded as follows: The controversy has recently resurfaced thanks to a spiteful speech by NBC host Megyn Kelly, so Fonda had to apologize for the image for what seems like the hundredth time.

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